


The World Askew

by qlockworkcadmus



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Mild Language, OC insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 18:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14816582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qlockworkcadmus/pseuds/qlockworkcadmus
Summary: When Allen Walker is sent on a mission to Paris to investigate reports of a "monster wolf" attacking citizens seemingly at random, he returns with a new exorcist.





	The World Askew

**Author's Note:**

> None of the French is important to the story  
> Welcome to my Hell where I have to have OCs in every fandom. I haven't watched much of the anime and I'm somewhere around chapter 100 of the manga at the moment, working on catching up. Considering how early on this takes places, and how I'll be having two OC exorcists, it will diverge from canon by a f*ck ton.
> 
> Enjoy the ride.

An evening in Paris. Pre- Order in Crisis arc.

 

A young woman about the age of nineteen sits in an alleyway, her old clothes just as dirty and unkempt as her aubergine hair. Huddled beside her is a wolf with long, silvery fur and some patterns of white across its face and belly. They watched their surroundings carefully, having been put on high alert in the past weeks; mechanical monsters wearing human bodies, murdering any person they happened to catch. Whatever these things were, their very presence turned Zola, the silver wolf, into a raging monster herself. There was already talk of a feral wolf wandering the streets of various towns for many years, but now that it was openly murdering what seemed like helpless victims, there was a panic.

An old man in a long black coat passed by the alleyway where Zola and her human companion Brittany sat but turned back as he sensed something watching him from the shadows.

At first, Brittany simply watched as she realized that old man was, in fact, an adolescent despite the white hair, but if the odd coat and hair color weren’t enough the left side of his face featured red markings and just above his eye was the shape of a pentagram. She suddenly stiffened, and Zola stood up, putting herself between Brittany and the stranger… a stranger, who bore the same mark as the other monsters who attacked them.

“Zola, qu’est-ce que c’est? Que fait-il?” Brittany whispered, keeping her eyes on the boy, but as he took a step forward Zola turned tail and sprinted away without even so much as looking back at Brittany. “Zola!” she called after the wolf, then looked back at the boy in fear. Just how powerful must this monster be to scare off her companion?

“Oh, that can’t be good-” the boy started to say, only for Brittany herself to start off running while she had the chance.

She was quick and knew these back streets like the back of her hand, but the boy was quick enough to keep her within eyeshot. Even when she thought she lost him by climbing up a building, he managed to find her and follow. Brittany would’ve figured that he would have shown his true form by now, knowing that these monsters generally could shoot massive bullets as opposed to chasing their prey on foot, but considering how that wasn’t happening at the current moment, she focused on her escape route.

They had already lept across several buildings by now, some of them barely close enough for Brittany to reach, but at the next ledge, she only realized after jumping that she wouldn’t make it. She should’ve known better than to trust her depth perception, having lived her whole life only seeing out of her right eye. It was an easy but embarrassing mistake.

She was just a fraction of a meter short of her goal when gravity had its way with her; that is, until a giant white claw wrapped itself around her, the sudden impact nearly knocking the wind out of her. Better than the impact of a fall knocking the life out of her.

As Brittany was lifted back up and onto the rooftop, she looked to see that the giant arm belonged to the boy she was running from and struggled in his grasp. Knowing that she would run away again he didn't let go but loosened his grip.

“Tu gagnes.” Brittany surrendered with her head held high. All monsters, human or otherwise, thrive off of fear, and she would rather suffer in a Hell she doesn’t believe in than serve a monster satisfaction on a silver plate.

“I don’t really speak French, but trust me, I don’t want to hurt you. I want to ask you some questions about that animal you were with. Can I trust you not to run away?” The boy’s gentle tone was reassuring, but Brittany only responded with a glare. “I’ll take that as a no… do you at least understand what I’m saying?”

“I may be a street rat but I know English, you monster” she spat out, the boy flinching at her accusation. “If you’re going to kill me, get it over with. There's no point in playing with your food.”

“You… you think I’m an akuma?” After a moment of contemplation, he released Brittany, his left arm returning to a normal size, although it was now a deep red color. She moved to start running again but considering her lack of options she paused. “It’s alright, the last thing I want to do is hurt you. Can we please just talk?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? After everything that’s happened around here lately, I know better than to trust anything with a pentacle on its face, let alone some creepy magic arm. Seriously, did you even try to look like a normal person? Kids don’t have white hair, I’m surprised you could walk around the city so effortlessly.” She scanned him up and down; her insults obviously hit a nerve for the boy; that was her way out… until her gaze settled on the cross on his chest. “That crest… you stole that from someone with The New World Alliance.”

“Miss, you’ve really got the wrong idea here,” the boy said, raising his hands as a show of peace and slowly taking a step towards her. “I belong to an organization associated with the NWA. My job is to exorcise akuma; those monsters with the pentacles who disguise themselves as human? They’re akuma. I’m an exorcist.”

Brittany recalled the many books she read over the years, some of which mentioning those same terms on rare occasions. She assumed it was nothing more than superstition and conspiracy theories, although the evidence was stacking against it. Still, she couldn’t get over the marks on his face… which when tied to what she read brought up another point: a story where a demon cursed a young man, leaving a burn in the shape of a pentacle on his cheek. It was a loose connection, far too convenient as well, but she didn’t have much else to work with.

“What’s that on your face? Those monsters have marks like that.” Brittany jutted her chin out to gesture to the pentacle.

“Oh, this?” The boy asked, pointing at the mark in question with the ghastly red hand, “It’s a little bit of a long story, but it’s a curse. Fortunately, it's actually been useful, although the white hair has gotten me my fair share of stares.” He tried his best to seem as friendly and non-threatening as possible, showing a sweet smile and even letting a soft chuckle reveal his insecurity. “Can I ask y-”

“I’m not done.” Brittany interrupted. “If you’re not one of those ‘akuma’, and you’re just some unfortunate soul cursed by one, then why the hell is your arm magic?”

“You know how I said I was an exorcist? Well, I was born with something in my left hand,” he reaches out to show her the cross on the back of his hand, “that allows me to exorcise the akuma. It destroys their body, allowing their soul freedom to move on in peace.”

“Okay… so why did you chase me?”

“Why did you run?”

“I thought you were a monster! One of the akuma!” Brittany had half a mind to slap the boy, although she still wasn’t entirely convinced he meant no harm and kept her distance.

“Ah, yeah, I suppose that’s fair,” he said, turning to his left arm with a look of mild embarrassment. “Well, as I said, I want to ask you about something; specifically the wolf that was with you. Is that alright?”

“She’s not a murderer,” Brittany replied hastily. “People think she’s a wild animal out for blood, but those weren’t really people that she killed.”

“Akuma?” In his head, the boy wondered what would’ve sparked so many of them to suddenly come around. Then, again, if the wolf was able to destroy them, it’s possible that power was drawing them there.

“I assume so, yeah. People who look dead inside that morph into nightmare machines seems to fit the description.” Then she smirked, “If you really are an exorcist, then Zola’s been doing your job for you.”

“I guess so,” the boy chuckled, “but anyway, how did you meet, um… Sola?”

“It’s Zola, z not s. And I’m not going to answer any more questions unless you do something for me.”

You haven’t really answered any questions to begin with, the boy thought and sighed, “what do you need?”

Almost as if on cue, Brittany’s stomach grumbled, answering for her before she could even open her mouth. “Food. You buy me food, I tell you about Zola. Deal?”

\---

“That’s a lot of food, are you sure you can eat it all?” The boy, who revealed his name to be Allen Walker, looked at the plate of steaks piled in front of Brittany.

“Says the boy who ordered just as much! Does your curse make you infinitely hungry?” She said, actually moving the steaks off to the side before digging into her potatoes and stew. “Just how much money do you exorcists even make? You must be filthy rich…” She was already formulating a plan to pickpocket any valuables off of Allen. Maybe she could get a new coat or even some tools with the money she’d pawn it off for.

“I’d hardly say we’re rich, the Black Order just has a lot of funding.”

“The Black Order? That definitely sounds like a group of do-gooders.” The next time the waitress came around, Brittany asked for a to-go bag for her steaks, and by the time she brought them Allen had already finished every ounce of his food, earning an odd look from the woman.

“The steaks are for Zola. She has an odd appetite, and I like to treat her when I can anyway.” Brittany wrapped everything up cleaned up her share of the mess as best she could. “So, I owe you some rambling now.”

“I was about six or seven when my mom left me just outside a forest down by Bordeaux. I was wandering around for a few days before I met Zola, who looked awful sickly. She was awfully fond of me and kept following me around no matter what I did, so I thought it would be best to stay with her, at least for the sake of having something warm with me at night. We’ve just kind of stuck together ever since, traveling around so I could find jobs, usually sleeping in the streets since wolves aren’t exactly welcome in hostels or orphanages.  
“Every once in a while, she would suddenly get really angry and runoff. One time I followed her… and I almost got killed. It was one of those akuma, but Zola didn't look like herself either. She was huge! With giant claws, and her fur was all spiky, she was like a monster. I didn’t know what to do until she killed the thing and turned back to normal, albeit with some minor injuries. I learned to keep my distance when she runs off after that, and she always finds me again anyway. Ever since we came to Paris though, it’s been almost nonstop; pretty much every single day Zola finds a monster… actually, it seems they’ve been coming to her. There’ve been a few times where I was cornered too… but of course, Zola came to the rescue. Anyway, long story short, Zola has been with me almost her entire life, she turns into a monster wolf when she finds an akuma, and I guess bigger cities have more of them?”

“Alright then,” Allen said. Zola had to be an anti-akuma weapon, however out of place it seemed. He knew one of the generals did also have a weapon in the form of an animal, so it wasn’t unheard of, and given its bond with Brittany, she had to be an accommodator. “I don’t know how else to say it, but I’m pretty certain that you’re an exorcist, Brittany.”

Her eyes widened, partially out of excitement, partially in disbelief. “An exercise, er, exor... exorcist? I haven’t even done anything though, Zola’s the one doing all the killing!”

“Well, I-” Allen stopped, sensing danger. "Everybody leave!"

Large, black bullets rained in through the windows of the restaurant leaving shattered glass all over. The figure of Zola’s invoked form struggled to stand up just outside the front window, growling at the level 2 akuma just a little ways in front of her.


End file.
